About
Beautiful banjo is a phrase you don’t hear very often, but the rich, timeless lyricism that Tony Ellis brings to his instrument defies stereotypes. A veteran of Bill Monroe’s early-’60s edition of the Blue Grass Boys and the National Council for Traditional Arts’ acclaimed 1993 Masters of the Banjo tour, the North Carolina native is able to drive the five-string with the best of them. Tony also has deep roots in old-time music, having had a long musical association with legendary fiddler Tommy Jarrell and others.
But it’s the Appalachian eloquence of the intensely personal style that Tony developed on banjo and fiddle over the past two decades that has come to define the Ellis sound and helped him win the inaugural Ohio Heritage Fellowship Award for Performing Arts in 2003. Playing with a clear, ringing three-finger roll and utilizing a variety of old-timey modal tunings, Tony’s music combines elements of bluegrass, 18th century parlor music, minstrel banjo, steamboat calliopes, Irish music, ragtime and more.
His unique compositions have been used by Ken Burns in several documentaries, including Baseball and Horatio’s Drive and have been recorded by such artists as the Red Clay Ramblers, Aine Minogue, Alice Gerrard and Jerry O’Sullivan. Among Tony’s many album credits are four acclaimed albums of original compositions: Dixie Banner, Farewell My Home, Quaker Girl and his most recent The Quest
Accompanied by the Musicians of Braeburn — his son, acclaimed singer/songwriter and fingerstyle guitarist William Lee Ellis, Tony’s wife Louise Adkins on pump organ and Larry Nager on upright bass, mandolin and Triple-Washboard — Tony Ellis, also a whiz on the fiddle, presents an epic patchwork of American music, reaching from the Mississippi Delta to the Carolina Piedmont, from deep blues to joyful reels, from elegant waltzes to heartwrenching Scottish airs.
Tony Ellis & the Musicians of Braeburn have taken these sounds to Japan, New Zealand, Australia,
Central America, the U.K. and Cuba. They have also performed at the Kennedy Center, MerleFest and other notable venues in the states.